Mother Speaks Out On Pledge Beliefs

July 13, 2002|By Scott Gold National correspondent

The anonymous 8-year-old girl in the shadow of last month's school ban of the Pledge of Allegiance was pulled deeper into the tug-of-war over God and politics when a Washington law firm set up a fund to defend her and her mother's reputations.

The second-grader is a church-going Christian, not an atheist, the law firm said Thursday, and is a tool of her father Michael Newdow's campaign to maintain a strict division between government and religion.

The girl and her mother, Sandra Banning -- Newdow's former partner -- "believe that America is in fact `one nation under God,'" said their attorney, Paul E. Sullivan, who plans no legal action but will represent his clients' interests in the continuing debate. "It is important that the child is not unjustly linked in the public's mind or in official court records to this case or the negative attention it has received."

Sullivan's firm, Foley & Lardner, did not say how the girl's reputation has been harmed by her connection to the case. Newdow and the Elk Grove School District where she attends near Sacramento, Calif., have taken pains to protect her identity.

Newdow, a lawyer and former emergency room physician, has acknowledged from the beginning that the girl says the pledge each morning with her classmates. Newdow has said he does not press his religious beliefs on her and that the case has always been about him, not her.

When the media descended on his house after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the phrase "under God" constitutes an improper reference to religion, Newdow removed the girl's photographs from his refrigerator and walls so her face would not appear in news accounts.

He asked the girl to take her mother's last name because he predicted long ago that much of the nation would find his beliefs radical -- and because "notoriety ... shouldn't be imposed on her." And he intentionally left the girl's name off of the documents he filed in court as part of his case so that she could not be identified.

Sullivan said attorneys from the firm were already working the phones to solicit donations to Banning's legal defense fund -- and were hoping that members of Congress would be the first in line.

Newdow and Banning were never married. Newdow says they remained best friends even after splitting up, until a family law court drove a wedge between them. They share custody of the girl.

Regardless of Newdow's efforts to protect the girl, Banning said she feared the public would conclude that her daughter is an atheist and has somehow been "harmed" by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

"In her discussions with me, she expressed sadness about the decision. I assured her that this was a long process and there were many steps before the pledge would be changed and the words `under God' removed," Banning said in a statement.

"Hearing this, she told me that it was OK because she will still whisper `one nation under God' and no one will hear her and know she is breaking the law. Because of her response and the potential impact of this case on her life, I have the responsibility as her mother to speak out, to set the record straight or clear up any misrepresentations."